Actionable Flow Metrics

Owned by Johan Brodin
Last updated: Nov 09, 2022
5 min read

The solution offers fourteen actionable flow metrics configurable and clickable to the underlaying Jira Issues. Slice and dice the data with the global filter (not in Jira Gadgets) or the settings in each chart.

What is actionable Kanban/flow metrics? On that topic there is already a lot of information available. The intention with this documentation is not to repeat that so please see a good introduction article.

How to setup your SW Factory

Flow Metrics

Basic Settings

Flow metrics measures the time Jira issues passes through the active steps in your SW factory. Loading a board the available steps are the board columns and for other loaded data the issue statues.

So the key setting is to select the active steps in the red box highlighted below. Please also note that the step order can be rearranged with drag & drop and that this setting is shared for all flow metrics.

Example

Below “Cycle Time Rolling Average“ shows a rolling average of the time spend for the selected steps. As you can see the team maxed out spending in average 14 days working on issues and are now down to 4 days.

Cumulative Flow Diagram

The metric shows number of issues in each step over time clickable down to issue. It is a powerful chart and used to identify where issues are getting stuck. We recommend not to select all steps instead only the active ones for better readability (chart 2 that is the default setting)

Cycle Time Scatterplot

Each do in the chart are issues that has passed through the SW factory with time spent and date existing. Click on each dot to get a detailed issue overview and drive improvements discussing the long runners.

Cycle Time Rolling Average

This is a very powerful chart that is unique to Agile Project Management. It shows the issue cycle time in the SW factory as a rolling average. This is calculated as the average cycle time for issues exiting each day including 10% of all issues before/after. Use the chart to see trends of where the issues get stuck.

Issue Throughput

Issue throughput including rolling average clickable down to issues.

Flow Efficiency

The chart shows your SW factory flow efficiency. calculated as time spend in a wait state divided by total time spend in factory. Each dot is a issue that has exited the factory and click to get detailed issue info.

WIP Age

The chart shows the step and age of each issue currently in the SW factory mapped. It is a great chart to quickly get an overview of a teams load and click on the dots for issue information.

WIP Age Table

The chart shows the Work In Progress Jira issues (WIP) in a table with issue age. This is a great chart sending out long runners and asking for issue cleaning.

WIP Assignee

Jira issue Work in Progress (WIP) mapped to assignee. Click on the bars and see the issues assigned to the individuals with their status.

 

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

The SLA chart shows the actual service level agreement lead time per issue priority. Adding the global filter enables you to show your actual SLA to stakeholders on any issues, components, project…

Trend - Issue Cycle Time Monthly

The chart shows monthly cycle time trend. Select the median values to display 50, 70, 85, 95 or average. The solution also supports removing non working days e.g. weekends.

Trend - Flow Efficiency Monthly

The chart shows the flow efficiency monthly trend. Calculated by all time spend for issues completed in a month divided with the time spend in the configurable wait steps.

Trend - Throughput

The chart shows the monthly SW Factory issue throughput trend

Trend - WIP

Work in Progress (WIP) Jira issues monthly trend as configured in the SW Factory.

 

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